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What does it take to score a hat-trick in a highly competitive league like the Premier League? Speed? Strength? Clinical finishing or just pure luck?
To score a hat-trick in this league, any player is probably going to need a combination of them all.
Let's focus at the club in question at the moment, Manchester United, a club whose attacking prowess have steadily declined over the years and one can only wonder what has happened to the attacking team that Sir Alex Ferguson had so built meticulously over the last decade.
With Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero banging in three hat-tricks just this season, one question Old Trafford faithful should ask is - Wait, when was the last time a one of our own managed to beat a goalkeeper three times in the same PL match?
The answer to that question takes us way back to 2012-13 season, the final season of the Ferguson-era. And the wait for a three-goal hero has continued since.
It is a telling sign that United are the only club from the 'Big six' of English top-flight which do not have a single player with a treble of goals in a PL match over the last two seasons.
With that being said, let's get straight into the record books and take a look at the last five Manchester United players to score a PL hat-trick and what have been they up to since their match-ball winning performances.
#5 Cristiano Ronaldo
To get our countdown started, we have one of the greatest players to have ever donned the No.7 jersey at number 5.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has the highest number of hat-tricks in club level football at the moment, scored his first and last hat-trick for the English club on January 12 2008, at Old Trafford.
His treble came at the expense of Newcastle United, who suffered a heavy 6-0 defeat in that fixture.
After leaving Old Trafford in 2009 following a six-year stint, the Portuguese superstar went on to become one of the the world's best players at Real Madrid, winning the Ballon d'Or for a record fifth time in 2017 and was the captain of the Portugal football team that won EURO 2016, his nation's first major international trophy.
The 34-year old looks as strong as ever and now plays for Serie A giants Juventus, who shelled out more than €100 million for him last summer, thus making him the most expensive player over 30 years of age in the sport's history.
#4 Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney, has more than 200 goals in the English top-flight, but did you know that he never won a Golden Boot award, despite scoring more than 25 league goals on two different occasions?
The Liverpool-born player rose through the ranks at Merseyside club - Everton's youth setup and made his full-time Premier League debut before even turning 17 years of age in 2002.
He joined The Red Devils in the summer of 2004, but had to wait for more than two seasons before his first hat-trick. The victims of his goal-scoring exploits were Bolton Wanderers and had to see Rooney taking home the match-ball after absolutely destroying their defense at their home on 28 October 2006.
Interestingly, his last treble as a United player also came against the same opposition at the same venue, five years later on 10 September 2011.
He now plays for MLS side DC United, having joined them last summer, following a one year spell with his boyhood club Everton.
In the years following his Manchester United exit, he had retired from international football, ending his association with the Three Lions as their all-time record goalscorer.
#3 Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Berbatov, one of the best No.9's United have had in the recent years, had a great four-year spell with the club, in which he scored three or more goals four times.
He is just one of the five player in the history of the Premier League to score five goals in a match, having achieved the mind-blowing feat in the 2010-11 season, when he ended the campaign as the league's top scorer with 20 goals.
The two-time PL winner's final hat-trick came in his last season with the club against Wigan Athletic on 26 December 2011.
He never reached the same heights in his career and after parting ways with the club in 2012, went on to play for four different clubs in four different leagues, with his last club being Indian Super League side Kerela Blasters.
The striker, who is Bulgaria's all-time leading goal-scorer, is a free agent at the moment.
#2 Shinji Kagawa
Though Tottenham Hotspur's winger Son Heung-min is undoubtedly the best Asian player in the Premier League at the moment, not much long ago, former Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa was touted to be the same.
But, his spell with the 13-time PL champions came to an end in just two years and 38 appearances, as the player failed to adapt to the English game. But he did leave England with a match-ball at least.
He only scored six goals in his stint at Old Trafford and half of those came in a single match. His only hat-trick for the club came On 2 March 2013, against Norwich City.
In his brief PL experience he became the first Asian player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League, also earning the title of being the first Japanese ever to win the league title in 2013, when United last became the champions of England in Sir Alex Ferguson's final season in the dugout.
He returned to his old club Borrusia Dortmund in a transfer deal worth less than half of what United had paid to secure his services in the first place in 2014.
He is now out on loan for the remainder of the current season, plying his trade with Turkish side Besiktas.
#1 Robin van Persie
Finally, it's time for us to reveal the answer to the burning question - Who was the last player to score a Premier League hat-trick for Manchester United? And that player is none other than two-time Golden Boot winner Robin van Persie.
It is fitting that the prolific Dutch strikers remains the last hat-trick scoring Reds players, given the important role he played in his three seasons with the club, scoring 48 goals for them, after swapping Arsenal's Red and White jersey with United's famous Red and Black colors in 2012.
The left-footed player, who was as good as scoring free-kicks as he was scoring with a poacher's finish, scored two hat-ticks for the Red Devils, both of them coming in Ferguson's final season at the club.
Since his treble in the match against Aston Villa in 2013, he has played for Turkish club Fenerbahce and returned to his boyhood club Feyenoord, where he scored the first hat-trick of his Eredivisie career last month, showing that he's still got what it takes.
So, there you have it, the last Manchester United hat-trick, that was scored on 22 April 2013 at the Old Trafford in their last title winning campaign, by their last striker to reach 30 league goals for them.
